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Here’s an advanced warning to particularly skittish stargazers with fragile dispositions and an overactive urge to call the authorities after viewing completely natural phenomena: There will be a significant spike in meteorite activity this week, it’s probably not an alien invasion.
Expect plenty of these this week. Image: NASA.gov.
More pointedly, the month of August – and especially this coming week – will see the Northern Hemisphere’s night skies illuminated by a brief surge in blazing space rocks as part of the planet’s annual dalliance with the Perseid Meteor Shower.
According to expectant meteorite enthusiasts, this year’s shower of ‘shooting stars’ could well result in an above average display for those people willing to escape manmade light pollution in order to witness the often-dazzling spectacle.
However, before packing up tent and telescope, bear in mind that astronomers believe August’s bright moon could yet take the edge off the Perseid event by drowning out some of the shower’s smaller fragments as they disintegrate while passing through the planet’s atmosphere.
Space.com reports that the moon will be “at last quarter the night of Aug. 13 and it will be at a rather bright waning gibbous phase a night or two earlier,” which could end up “seriously hampering” Perseid observers hoping to catch the shower’s predicted peak on the nights of August 11 and August 12.
If you do decide to turn your eyes skyward around the middle of the month, you should expect to view a stream of swift meteorites, some of which blaze vivid trails and some that create fireballs bright enough to be clearly seen despite the presence of bright moonlight.
The Perseid Meteor Show is caused when the Earth passes close to the solar orbit of the Swift-Tuttle comet and debris left in its wake hurtles through the planet’s atmosphere at a speed of around 37 miles per second.
The Swift-Tuttle comet was discovered in 1862 and requires some 130 years to circle our solar system’s star.
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